Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Life's Little Surprises

Some days my life closely resembles Mikey's. If anything strange and unusual is going to happen...it usually does.I was in the barn trimming horse number 6 for the day when Megan and I heard a baby bird. I ignored it the first time I heard it. Listened a little more carefully the second time I heard it. And put the foot down to look the third time I heard it.

When I stood up, Megan said "I hear a baby bird". I said "I do to". No sooner had I uttered those words when we both spied a little fluff ball hopping over the cement ledge into the barn. The dogs spied it at the same time. Red Dog lunged and earned himself a kick in the ribs, Ute ran the other way and I tackled the fluff ball...It's a baby Sharp Tailed Grouse!! WTH!!! Where did this come from???

Both of us were so surprised that the only thing we could think to do was take it to the house to show mom. She didn't even want to look. Mom is not as enamored of baby birds as Megan and I.The next step was to walk around in the rain soaked grass to see if we could find a nest or the momma bird with the rest of her brood.Nothing.

So the little fluff ball is safely nestled into his new home-in a box...in the bathroom.The bathroom heater is on and Megan captured a jar full of flies to feed him.

Ummm...he has different ideas of where he feels safe... Now the only thing we can figure is that the dogs rousted a momma grouse and one of them captured a baby. The fluff ball is not injured, nor was he wet when we found him. There is no way he wandered there by himself. He is not exactly a new hatch-he already is developing tiny little wing feathers and has pin feathers developing on his neck.

Usually grouse cannot be raised in captivity-no one really knows why-although Megan believes she has discovered the secret...They are bug-eaters from the time they hatch and will not eat chick scratch. Looks like Megan is going to be busy keeping flies captured. I have my fingers crossed that she can raise the little shit. It is so damn cute!!!

Callie-around these parts-we are the wildlife rescue-LOL!!There was hardly a time when I was growing up that we didn't have some sort of "wild" animal that we were raising; deer(lots of deer), a badger, a Red-Tailed hawk, a Golden eagle, Burrow owls, pheasants, raccoons, prairie dogs, cottontails, mice, even an antelope(but dad took that back after 3 days-it was a nasty little thing-and yes-its mother was still there looking for it).

Mikey-No foal yet. Woofer is messing with me-I kid you not. The only thing we can think of is that either she is going to go the 12 month thing that some older mares are prone to do or that the vet was wrong when he preg-tested her and he was a month off. She looks good though-full bag, mushy hips, soft girlie parts, sagging belly, yadda, yadda, yadda. The only thing that I do not like about it is the fact that the baby isn't moving anymore. I know a lot of people say they never see the baby move-but we were seeing her move on a daily basis and then she just stopped. I just keep telling myself it is just from the re-positioning.I'm starting to think a swift kick in the belly might move things along-just kidding!!

Thanks 20M-and Thank You to everyone for your kind thoughts, hugs and prayers. It really does mean a lot.

I had the same problem here. Except there were FOUR robins. They built a nest in a rose bush, 4 feet off the ground. Not a good idea, being there is a Tom Cat who is the bird catcher, bully-other-cats, extraordinaire. The babies made it to the fall out of the nest, hop and flap along stage. Where the mother and father were flying to the ground and feeding them. I chased these babies, dropping them back in the nest for several hours. Sadly, 1 went missing, 1 was a snack for a neighbor's dog when it hopped into the fence. I finally grabbed the last 2...and took them way out close to a large pasture....the Mother bird closely following and sat them on the edge of the large pasture....hopefully out of harms way! I don't know what became of them, the parents were still feeding them, but I hope they are flying around and all happy by now.

PS: Feeding flies is great....try and buy some ground worms and small crickets. Take the legs off the crickets, cut the worms in small wiggly pieces..drop them on the ground and let the baby eat them when they are still moving. This way it learns to catch live food.